“Following the late November terror attacks in Mumbai, India has passed two tough laws being seen by rights activists as potentially eroding the country’s federal structure and limiting fundamental liberties. . . .

‘The UAPA Act is particularly vile, and will have the effect of turning India into a virtual police state,’ says Colin Gonsalves, executive director of the Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network. ‘It basically brings back a discredited law, the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2002 (POTA), except for admitting confessions made to a police officer as legal evidence.’

POTA was an extremely unpopular law, which the UPA government abrogated upon coming to power in 2004 in response to innumerable complaints of its selective and discriminatory use against India’s Muslim minority, and its cavalier and irresponsible application to offenses not even remotely connected with terrorism.” (Read more from antiwar.com)

General Hamid Gul “9/11 still shrouded in mystery. . . . Americans have [yet] to set up a proper inquiry commission into this event. . . . It was an inside job.”

BURLINGTON, December 23 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said today that Congress should reject Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson’s request to release the second half of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund that has been shrouded in secrecy.

In a statement issued by the Treasury Department on Friday, Paulson asserted that “it is clear…that Congress will need to release the remainder…to support financial market stability.” President Bush has not yet formally asked Congress for authority to tap the second half of the fund.

“It is inconceivable that we would provide another $350 billion to the banks — supposedly to ease credit — when they are refusing to tell us how they’re spending the money they’ve already received,” said Sanders. The senator said that many of the concerns that he voiced when he voted against the bailout on October 1 have turned out to be true.

“Given the incompetence of the Bush administration, there is no way I would give them another dime to throw at a program that he has been so miserably botched,” Sanders said. (Read more from buzzflash.com)

Support this man.

“The Armed Forces Press Service has initiated a propaganda campaign designed to convince the American people that deploying the 3rd Infantry Division in the United States in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is a good thing. The propaganda piece appeared on the Hinesville, Georgia, Coastal Courier’s website on December 26.

‘The first active-duty unit dedicated to supporting U.S. civilian authorities in the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack recently wrapped up three days of intensive training its members hope they never have to apply in real life,’ Donna Miles reports for the Armed Forces Press Service.” (Read more from prisonplanet.com)

Many bloggers have been watching closely since last fall, when the Army began keeping an infantry brigade on domestic duty. See my earlier post.

See also:
-Report: Military may have to quell domestic violence from economic collapse “Deepening economic strife in the US could lead to civil unrest and violence that would require military intervention, warns a new report from the US Army War College.”

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Sun Dec 14, 6:49 pm ET

WASHINGTON – When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can’t avoid. (from news.yahoo.com)

“I am a skeptic. . . Global warming has become a new religion.” – Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense. . . The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” – Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

See this earlier post for more.

THE 39 END THE FED RALLIES held across America recently inspired two Milwaukee neighborhoods to create their own local currency….This money is scrip, which has a long and noble history. (Read more from Daily Paul)

(Don’t bet on it. Private, unaccountable armies are too good for any tyrant to resist.)

“Blackwater could be denied a licence to operate in Iraq, rendering it unable to provide security for US diplomats, a US State Department internal report says.

Earlier, the Associated Press news agency reported that the report recommended against renewing Blackwater’s contract, citing an official linked to the report.

But that specific recommendation was not included in the report itself, AP said later. A recommendation would not be made until the investigation into the civilian shootings was complete, it quoted the same official as saying.” (Read more from news.bbc.co.uk)

Angus Kidman13 December 2008, 6:38 PM Protest marches were held around Australia today against the Australian government’s internet censorship plans. (from apcmag.com)

The fact that a Forbes columnist used the D-word is very significant. Usually the media supports the government’s desire to maintain confidence in the dollar. Government needs this confidence to preserve the dollar’s value as it prints trillions from thin air to support wars, domestic spying and the salaries of 22 million federal employees. Why are rumors of devaluation dangerous? Think about it. What would you do if you knew dollars were about to lose half their purchasing power?

In my mind, the fact of devaluation’s discussion is news in itself.

“What began as government social tinkering–with implied threats to banks and mortgage companies to extend home loans to even the most marginal of borrowers–led to a greed-blinded mortgage banking business and the meltdown we are experiencing today. Now we are asked by the same congressional leadership to go along with taxpayer-funded bailouts of the very banksters who, while making millions, created the mess.

Despite the trillions of dollars already expended recapitalizing banks, there is very little, if any, progress to show. Will a few trillion more do the trick? That seems to be the consensus among Congress and the banks. ‘They are simply too big to let fail,’ or are they really just too big to save? We can go back to “Plan A” and buy the toxic assets. If so, at what price? What if a few trillion does not remove enough toxic waste from the system or doesn’t get credit flowing again and the economy bustling?”

“A quick dollar devaluation would work wonders for submerged borrowers. Don’t kid yourself: It could happen.”

“It can be done on a country-by-country basis, but a coordinated devaluation would work best. A devaluation of 30% would raise the dollar value of all assets by 43%. A $200,000 home with a $230,000 mortgage would become a $286,000 home with the same mortgage. Presto! The homeowner who was $30,000 upside-down now has $56,000 equity and a good reason to make his payments. Both the homeowner and the bank are immediately better-off.

It would even benefit those who purchased their homes responsibly, as the value of their homes would rise by the same 43%. The current course of throwing trillions of dollars at the culprits is without any benefit to those who acted responsibly. Admittedly, this is not a solution without the price of inflation.” (Read more from forbes.com)

The Pentagon’s inspector general said yesterday that the Defense Department’s public affairs office may have “inappropriately” merged public affairs and propaganda operations in 2007 and 2008 when it contracted out $1 million in work for a strategic communications plan for use by the military in collaboration with the State Department. (Read more from www.washingtonpost.com)

“and so it begins… the ‘obesity’ tax Sigh,
among a bunch of other budget cuts and tax hikes, Paterson is planning on implementing a 15% tax on non-diet soda– a so-called obesity tax for NY.” (Read more from effect modification)

“Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant, started the first such scheme in Boston in 1916. He convinced some people to allow him to invest their money, but he never made any real investments. He just took the money from later investors and gave it to the earlier investors, paying them a handsome profit on what they originally paid in. He then used the early investors as advertisements to get more investors, using their money to pay a profit to previous investors, and so on.

To keep paying a profit to previous investors, Ponzi had to continue to find more and more new investors. Eventually, he couldn’t expand the number of new investors fast enough and the system collapsed. Because he never made any real investments, he had no funds to pay back the newer investors. They lost all the money they “invested” with Ponzi.

Just like Ponzi’s plan, Social Security does not make any real investments — it just takes money from later “investors,” or taxpayers, to pay benefits to earlier, now retired, taxpayers. Like Ponzi, Social Security will not be able to recruit new “investors” fast enough to continue paying promised benefits to previous investors. Because each year there are fewer young workers relative to the number of retirees, Social Security will eventually collapse, just like Ponzi’s scheme.” (Read more from The Motley Fool)

Ron Paul on Social Security during the Republican debates:

(Most of these headlines pre-date the current invasion of Gaza.)

Settler who shot a Palestinian in al-Khalil released “OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli radio reported on Wednesday that an Israeli settler who shot a Palestinian in al-Khalil was set free by a magistrate who rebuked the IOF for not arresting the Palestinians who were throwing stones.” (Read more from atheonews.blogspot.com)

Israeli blockade ‘forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food’ “UN fears irreversible damage is being done in Gaza as new statistics reveal the level of deprivation” (Read more from guardian.co.uk)

Gaza families eat grass as Israel locks border
“AS a convoy of blue-and-white United Nations trucks loaded with food waited last night for Israeli permission to enter Gaza, Jindiya Abu Amra and her 12-year-old daughter went scrounging for the wild grass their family now lives on. “We had one meal today – khobbeizeh,” said Abu Amra, 43, showing the leaves of a plant that grows along the streets of Gaza. “Every day, I wake up and start looking for wood and plastic to burn for fuel and I beg. When I find nothing, we eat this grass.”” (Read more from timesonline.co.uk)

from the Guardian: Having built a wall around Gaza before disengagement [in 2005], Israel then imposed a progressively tighter blockade, by barring Gazan labourers from entering Israel in late 2005, then by banning Gazan commercial trade in 2006 and finally in mid-2007 by squeezing humanitarian aid.” (Read more from guardian.co.uk)

Israel expels UN rights envoy Richard Falk – Dec 17, 08

Hmmm. I wonder if his expulsion had anything to do with the invasion which began shortly thereafter.

Britain steps up fight against West Bank settlements “The British government is stepping up measures against settlements in the West Bank in an effort to stop their further expansion. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently instructed the Foreign Office to issue a warning to British citizens against the purchase of houses and real estate in the settlements.

Other measures recently imposed by London on West Bank settlements include tying the upgrade of relations between the European Union and Israel to the cessation of construction in the settlements in the West Bank and putting special labels on products denoting that they were made in West Bank settlements.” (Read more from Haaretz.com)

Austrian president in W. Bank: Settlement construction must stop “[Austrian President Heinz Fischer] was speaking at a press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. “We demand that the settlement expansion stop,” he said, adding that settlements distance the opportunities for a just and comprehensive peace.” (Read more from Haaretz.com)

Settlers to Ethiopian troops: Niggers don’t expel Jews “Not only do they serve long and tiring hours in the reserve forces, and not only are they forced to deal with violent clashes with settlers, but now, Border Guard officers of Ethiopian descent are also faced with rising racism. “Niggers don’t expel Jews! This isn’t what we brought you to Israel for!” are just some of the degrading slurs Border Guard officers reported hearing from masked settlers. ” (Read more from ynetnews.com)

Bulldozing Bedouin (Read more from sundayherald.com)

Written by Jeanne Roberts
Tuesday, 28 October 2008

“Five years of occupation, more than $558 billion spent, 4,182 U.S. soldiers and 655,000 Iraqi civilians dead, and it now looks like Monsanto (NYSE.MON – $71.95) is going to be the real victor in Iraq thanks to a postwar document known as Order 81.

Part of the infamous 100 Orders, Order 81 mandates that Iraq’s commercial-scale farmers must now purchase “registered” seeds. These are available through agribusiness giants like Monsanto, Cargill Corporation (a private company) and the World Wide Wheat Company (also private), but Monsanto is far and away the most significant player in the registered seed market.

Monsanto’s seeds are “terminator” seeds. This means they are inherently sterile, and any seed they produce does not give birth to more plants.” (Read more from thepanelist.com)

See also: The Assault on Iraqi Agriculture — U.S. Agribusiness Targets the Fertile Crescent